My First Photoshoot!

[Dani97]

I got a job taking pictures of a small business owner's inventory, and she also asked me to take some pictures of her clothing on a model for the main page of her website. I informed her in the beginning that I am new to portraits/pictures of people, and she said she was absolutely fine with it...it'll be a good learning experience!

Much C&C please!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

 

[Josh220]

The focus is off on a lot of them. My best guess would be that since you were technically photographing the clothes, maybe you also focused on them? You should have focused on her eyes, but had a larger DOF to get everything else in focus. I'd also be careful of the lighting. #3 isn't a great pose, but the better alternative (#4) has a spot of light on her face near her lip which is distracting. The scattered patchy light in #5 isn't amazing either.

Do you have any type of flash besides the one built into the camera? Fill flash could have helped in some of these.

 

[PhotoXopher]

1. Looks good but out of focus.
2. Seems soft, but I like it other than the cut off limb (hand).
3. Could have been a winner but I don't care for the stance, looks like she has to pee.
4. A little Photoshop work to get rid of the reflections on her face would make this one work.
5. Needs fill light, the sun beaming in casting it's glare on her cheek ruins this one along with the squint.
6. Broader depth of field needed, face is very soft. I know the accent is the clothes but still...
7. No a flattering angle/pose for the model or the clothing. Background is blown out as well.

 

[NateS]

Okay, I'll give you my thoughts for what they're worth. First of all, I'll say that these aren't too shabby for your first time out. I know it how intimidating it can be doing portrait work. I've got a few under my belt now and I still have a confidence problem.

1. Probably the best of the bunch as far as the combination of focus, exposure, posing,etc. If anything, she looks a tad underexposed, but not beyond recovery.

2. Also nice. Would have benefited from lowering the exposure and using some fill flash. Also it looks a little out of focus.

3. Again could use fill flash. Dark face and racoon eyes with a washed out background isn't a great mix.

4. Again, the fill flash with a lower exposure (basically for all the outdoor shots). The brightness on the left is distracting and the white spots on her face as well. Both could have been fixed with fill flash and lowering the camera's exposure.

5 and 6. Looks like the focus is on the pant leg closest to the camera on both of these rather than on her face. Exposure looks pretty good on these though, especially 6.

7. Odd outfit. I don't care for the centering of the subject. I think this one would have been stronger in portrait orientation.


Basically, I think a slight amount of fill flash would have improved about all of these by quite a bit. If you can't afford an SB-600 then you can always get (or make) a diffuser for your onboard flash to give you a little fill.

 

[RMThompson]

Focus is off on some of these and the colors seem oversaturated in some. Also the colors are off, and some of them seem too dark to me.

When shooting for clothes (which is what I do about 3 times a week! LOL) you have to make sure the clothing is FIRST. There are some tricks you can learn to accentuate that:

1. Use rule of thirds, but ignore the person. Make sure the CLOTHING is on the RO3rds locations.
2. Have the model NOT looking at the camera. Her eyes will draw the attention of the viewer, and the goal here is bring the attention to the SHIRT/CLOTHING.
3. Don't oversaturate, keep the colors as natural as possible!

 

[Dani97]

thanks, everyone for the c&c. I'll be getting some new, more adequate equipment soon...had to dump alot of money into a stray puppy I found and before I knew it I was just about broke!

Any suggestions on a good flash to get for the outdoors? The Florida sun is a killer...it's so hard to get a good picture without being over or under exposed in certain parts of the picture. I will definitely work on the lighting and focus.

As far as the outfits go, you would be surprised at when girls wear down here. It's never cold out so they truly do wear those 'ug' boots with shorts and a blouse top...really weird sense of taste!

 

[musicaleCA]

Ugs and shorts? Yeah, weird taste. Don't see that in Van...more shorts, skirts, and..."sparse" tops. Ugs are for when it's cold. (Compared to Florida, Vancouver gets damn cold; compared to the rest of Canada, it's wonderfully temperate here.)

For outdoor flash, what you need is power. Lots of it. Get the most powerful flash you can fit in your pocketbook, and whatever you do, make sure it can tilt and swivel; not so much for outdoor fill as indoors. If you're going to spend the money you want something versatile. The thing to remember is that you're almost trying to over-power the sun sometimes, and that is going require a great deal of output from the flash. The internal, pop-up flash will actually suffice most of the time, but to get better control of your lighting, bigger is better in this case.

 

[Tony123]

All the compositions have a nice "casual" feel to them, except the first one. It feels stiffer than the rest. Really nice poses in the rest.

 

[Dani97]

All the compositions have a nice "casual" feel to them, except the first one. It feels stiffer than the rest. Really nice poses in the rest.

I do agree with you on that. This was her first shoot, and I was trying to get her to relax the whole time. Through alot of the pictures I felt like she would make the pose, then I would take the picture last minute before her next pose, or between poses to get a more relaxed shot of her.